5G Remarks on the recent Conference at Vienna on 
humation of the poison. The conclusions arrived at as to the 
origin of the disease in 1877 and 1880 would appear to suffer 
in some degree bj the time which elapsed between the stock- 
ing of the marshes and the development of the fever. Such 
a delay, however, may be reasonably referred to the absence, 
during the interval, of those seasonable conditions on which the 
activity of germ-life so much depends. Moreover, past experi- 
ences have afforded me the strongest reasons for believing that 
an anthrax diathesis is, in some animals, an essential to primary 
natural infection. If such be the case, and the condition so 
expressed is, as it sometimes seems to be, intimately connected 
with a plethoric state, then the interval of time may be accepted 
as a necessary factor in the development of that state. 
IV. — Remarks on the recent Conference at Vienna on Agricul- 
tural arid Forest Meteorology. By R. H. ScOTT, M.A., F.R.S., 
Secretary of the Meteorological Office. 
Were I to attempt to treat of the relations of meteorology to 
agriculture in any detail, the paper would stretch far beyond the 
limits available in the ' Journal,' for meteorology is so bound 
up with the science of agriculture that no farmer can dispense 
with some knowledge of its principles. 
It is mainly the study of the climate of a country which 
determines the nature of the crops and the style of cultivation 
which will yield the best return for invested capital, and the 
study of climate is the most important branch of meteorological 
science. 
The study of climate is, in one sense, only a form of weather 
prophecy. We determine by long-continued observation the 
average yearly and monthly figures for temperature, rainfall, 
&c. &c., and record the extreme variations from these figures 
which have been observed during the period of observation, and 
from these data we endeavour to calculate what temperatures, 
&c., may reasonably be expected to occur. For instance, as 
regards rainfall, engineers assume, as a rough-and-ready rule, 
for the greatest amount of rainfall likely to occur in a district, 
twice the quantity that has fallen in the driest year during 
the period of observation. This is simply to forecast climate ; 
and the more extensive the basis of observation, the more trust- 
worthy is the result. 
Not only, however, is agriculture dependent on meteorology, 
but meteorology is in its turn dependent on agriculture, or at 
